[Leica] how to lie with a camera...

[Kyle Cassidy <KCassidy@asc.upenn.edu>]

fascinating discussion of photoshop and photographic "truth". wanted to get
my 1 cent in -- 

firstly, people have been lying with cameras long before photoshop -- this
begins when a photographer decides to take a picture, is altered again by
how the photographer takes the picture and even more by what a photo editor
may decide to print -- it's entirely possible to send two photographers to a
place (let's say israel) and take photographs which speak volumes to either
side of the conflict. this is true in most any situation.

i think we have at least three distict types of lying with a camera...

1) physical obfuscation (using photoshop to move the pyramids; adding a pair
of bruno magli's to a photo of o.j. simpson, and remove UFO's from photos)

2) "classic" photo manipulation -- burning in the sky, the corners, to draw
attention to a particular spot, darkening o.j.'s face

3) editorial misdirection -- fabrication through deciding what to show and
what not to show.

national geographic moved the pyramids which was a manipulation of fact.
though time magazine's 1995 "man of the year" cover photo of newt gingrich
comes to mind as an example of editorial politicizing:
http://www.time.com/time/special/moy/1995/
clearly an unflattering photo. the image of mr. gingrich, unshaved and
looking tired, says something about him which may be "true" (at that
fraction of a second he had that look on his face and didn't shave that
morning) but may misrepresent the larger "truth" (he may be a fastidious
shaver caught off guard on his way to the washroom, he may have been about
to sneeze, or whatnot). most of us would not have selected that image of a
client we were asked to photograph -- time, i think, was making some sort of
statement in choosing it -- whatever that may be. i also recall u.s. news
printing an extremely unflattering photo of paula jones several years back;
awash in a sea of photographers grinning like she'd just won a hog calling
contest, that could only have been chosen to suggest something about her
personality.

so ... as to photoshop ... it's a new world where pictures don't mean what
they used to, but i think it is a logical progression....

kc
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